Of the face, only the lower part remains, shown in profile: a closed mouth and a chin attached to a tense neck adorned with a silver necklace.
Of the body, also truncated, only the bust and groin remain, adorned with a sequined bodice and satin panties. It takes audacity and talent to dare to paint a full-length portrait, truncated and in such a tight frame, over 2 meters high, no less.

Born in Sweden in 1983 and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sara-Vide Ericson – to whom the Swedish Institute is offering her first solo exhibition in France – possesses both. Blending highly textured areas with areas where the canvas is almost left bare, her portraits and landscapes alike demonstrate a masterful and highly original handling of materials.

Sometimes even mixing blood and horsehair into her paint, she readily uses pastry bags to apply the raw paint in thick lines, giving her canvases a sculptural texture that becomes visible upon closer inspection. One is struck in all her works by this subtlety of impasto; far from the flatness of many contemporary figurative paintings, everything vibrates and shimmers in her canvases: here, the glimmer of still waters in a marsh, there, the shimmer of a wild horse's coat, and, in our unsettling portrait, the shimmer of sequins and satin.

But the strength and captivating power of this painting don't stem solely from these subtle textural effects. It also comes from the equally subtle use of off-screen space, monumentality, and enlargement, which transforms the canvas into a surface for projection and identification for the viewer. Therein lies the mystery…

“DESIRE OF THE TAIL BY SARA-VIDE ERICSON”
Swedish Institute
11, RUE PAYENNE, PARIS 3RD
UNTIL FEBRUARY 18, 2024
INSTITUTSUEDOIS.FR